Janus 2-seat glider as a club glider?

It's not about the complexity of the aircraft, it's entirely about the
quality of the instruction.

We do about 4000-5000 tuition flights a year, mostly on ASK-21s. About half
of them are ab initio. No matter how well we train people (and I'd like to
think our instructors'experience and skills are above average), we find
that there's always a time when early solo pilots (who also fly their first
solo's on the twoseaters) need just that extra safety margin. A margin that
a glider like the ASK-21 offers. And a Janus C doesn't. Keeps the student
pilot and the glider in one piece (in that order).

CAN you use a Janus C for ab initio. Sure. Would I like my club to do so?
No way. There's aircraft far better suited for that, from both a
maintenance and safety point of view. Just my two cents.

hmmm, some duplicate posts here unfortunately. My apologies. Seems there's
a a two-day delay in publishing what I typed, hence the doubles...

At 13:11 31 January 2013, Eric Munk wrote:
It's not about the complexity of the aircraft, it's entirely about the
quality of the instruction.

We do about 4000-5000 tuition flights a year, mostly on ASK-21s. About
half
of them are ab initio. No matter how well we train people (and I'd like
to
think our instructors'experience and skills are above average), we find
that there's always a time when early solo pilots (who also fly their
first
solo's on the twoseaters) need just that extra safety margin. A margin
that
a glider like the ASK-21 offers. And a Janus C doesn't. Keeps the student
pilot and the glider in one piece (in that order).

CAN you use a Janus C for ab initio. Sure. Would I like my club to do so?
No way. There's aircraft far better suited for that, from both a
maintenance and safety point of view. Just my two cents.

On Friday, February 1, 2013 8:36:16 AM UTC-8, Eric Munk wrote:
hmmm, some duplicate posts here unfortunately. My apologies. Seems there's

a a two-day delay in publishing what I typed, hence the doubles...



At 13:11 31 January 2013, Eric Munk wrote:

It's not about the complexity of the aircraft, it's entirely about the

quality of the instruction.



We do about 4000-5000 tuition flights a year, mostly on ASK-21s. About

half

of them are ab initio. No matter how well we train people (and I'd like

to

think our instructors'experience and skills are above average), we find

that there's always a time when early solo pilots (who also fly their

first

solo's on the twoseaters) need just that extra safety margin. A margin

that

a glider like the ASK-21 offers. And a Janus C doesn't. Keeps the student

pilot and the glider in one piece (in that order).



CAN you use a Janus C for ab initio. Sure. Would I like my club to do so?

No way. There's aircraft far better suited for that, from both a

maintenance and safety point of view. Just my two cents.

Yes, my German club purchased Janus C in 2011. Apart from a protracted time
getting it registered in Germany it was nicely overhauled by our club
before being put into service. It is used as a cross country trainer (the
other club 2 seaters are 2 K-13s and a K-21).

I flew for 4 hours with an instructor wanting to get his OLC and P1 cross
country time up. I used the flight as a regional acquaint and an
introduction to flying with flaps. Later in the year I got cleared solo on
the Janus C. It has 'long legs' compared to my Standard Cirrus but once
you compensate with a suitably sized circuit and approach I was able to get
the landings spot on. later in the season I flew my buddy's DG-200 17.6 and
so I am transitioned onto single seat with flaps.

Impressions:

- Pretty roomy in the back but after 4 hours getting out was pretty painful
with cramped legs & stiff knees (I never have that problems in the Std
Cirrus, even after 6+ hours).

- Flaps become intuitive pretty quickly. If you 'change down' the flap too
quickly when pulling up into a thermal your feel the drag and quickly learn
when to change the flap setting.

- Front seat seems a little cramped. My parachute kept catching on
something when closing the canopy - I will try with another parachute next
time.

- Poor man's Duo Discus. Good performance and handling though. The
ergonomics are compromised cf a modern 2 seaters. I am sure my club would
love to a have a Duo or DG1000/1001 but could get about 6 or 8 Janus C for
the price we paid for ours.

- Tail parachute not used (fitted but tagged out for normal use).

- Air brakes seem pretty effective.

- Undercarriage mechanism not repeated in the which led to the amusing
incident 'Youthful instructor in the front after 2.5 hours flying 'Gavin we
have a problem' me: I check a/c position against airspace - no problem.
Check height 7,500 feet, wings still attached,level flight, not stalling,
not spinning - all seems OK to me 'What is the problem? Instructor: 'The
undercarriage is still down'. me. 'Well if you pull it up and you don't
tell anyone then nobody will know!.

-Mylar strips/tape on wing tips, aileron mechanism seems a little
vulnerable to hangar rash/handling in a club environment.

The Janus C is proving very popular.


Gavin
Std Cirrus, G-SCNN, #173
LSV Viersen, Keiheuvel, Belgium